How to Get Your Puppy to Eat

Learn how to get your puppy to eat from dog trainer Robert Haussmann of Dogboy, Inc. in this dog training video from Howcast.

Transcript

So let's say you are feeding your puppy and your puppy is just deciding it's not interested in what you're giving it.

There are a lot of reasons that could happen. It could just be preference. Sometimes the dog's just not interested in what you're feeding it and other times the pieces of kibble are just a little bit too big for a small dog who's teeth and mouth are so small that it could actually be a little uncomfortable.

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There are a few things to give a try. If you have a little guy like this and you're giving it a hard piece of kibble, I would still give him some water to soften it up a little bit or switch to a wet food. A lot of times dogs are really interested the wet food and there are some really great high quality wet foods on the market.

Traditionally we thought that wet food was not as good as dry kibble or that it wasn't as healthy or was not as good for the dogs teeth, it's just not necessarily true.

Hard food can actually sit on the gum line after they chew it and cause damage to the teeth also so if you are doing a dry kibble you can mix in a little wet food or just switch to wet food altogether in see if that changes the dogs motivation to eat the food.

You can also pour a little chicken broth over it. Adding human food to a dogs kibble is not the end of the world as long as you're not doing it from the table so the dog is now waiting for you to do something spectacular to the food. It can just be part of the regular food preparation.

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You can also make it a little more exciting by having the dog work for that food so you can either do a little training routine around the first couple of kibble to encourage eating and then present the dog with the bowl or ask the dog to do a down stay or go to its bed and sit to earn the food bowl. Sometimes, especially working breeds, they really get a kick out that and it makes it a little bit more fun.

But it's usually a preference, that food is just not palatable for the dog so you may need to mix it up and try things out. You can actually go to a local mom and pop shop and see if they have any samples for you try out and see if the dog is interested in it. But don't be afraid of wet food. Puppies tend to really enjoy the taste and consistency of the wet food. It can be just as healthy as the dry.